THE ELEGANT ENGLISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 160, 10 July 1933, Page 6

THE ELEGANT ENGLISH.

It will be generally agreed that the. great days of the "milord Anglais" are definitely of the past (says the "Manchester Guardian"). Instead of young noblemen -who take "grand tours" -we have elderly statesmen who "dash" (as some of the headlines call it) from conference to conference —and no one really expects murfi "elegance" from Cabinet Ministers. Nevertheless, it is gratifying to note that here and there on the Continent of Europe the tradition of the elegant English still survives, and a Renter messa<*e from Prague now tells us that in Czechoslovakia the habit of pipe smoking shows a marked increase, partly because cigar smokers have, taken to it as a measure of economy and partly because "pipe smoking is considered here to be an English and 'elegant' ha-bit." What a Beau Brummell Mr. Baldwin will bo if he ever fmda himself at a conference in Prague! And how little do those irreverent cartoonists realise that they are presenting the Unionist leader as a perfect model of elegance when they give him a pipe as his inseparable companion! Yet in the light of the opinion of Prague there is somctliino, a little disturbing about the importance that" is attached to Mr. Baldwin's pipe on the home front. To put the point at its bluntest, if pipes were more common Mr. Baldwin's pipe would not be so important; no cartoonist could make a personal emblem out of a facial attachment that was common to all Englishmen. The truth in this country is rather that cigarette smoking advances and pipe smoking recedes; more and more of the inelegant English tend to neglect their elegant pipes. But let us hope that that distressing admission will be neither noted nor copied by the newspapers of Czecho-Slovakia. If Prague thinks that pipe smoking is _ elegant, Ihy all moans let Prague continue to think that [all Englishmen smoke pipes.